Mexico's Main Opposition Party Quits Energy Talks Amid Graft Scandal Reuters
go to original March 14, 2014

MEXICO CITY - Mexico's opposition conservative party on Thursday walked out of talks over the fine print of a landmark energy bill, accusing the government of using a graft scandal to gets its way, in a move that could delay the rollout of the key legislation.

The National Action Party (PAN) lawmakers said they would not return to the negotiating table until their conditions were met, raising the risk that the imminently expected laws will not be approved before the government's end-of-April deadline.

Mexico's Congress in December approved a constitutional reform pushed by President Enrique Pena Nieto that ends state oil giant Pemex's 75-year monopoly on crude production and aims to lure private investment into the ailing energy sector.

The overhaul, which is part of wider batch of modernizing reforms that also includes measures to curb the dominance of telecoms billionaire Carlos Slim, allows for new contractual options for Pemex as well as foreign or private oil companies, including production-sharing contracts and licenses.

However, the so-called secondary laws of the reform, which include details on implementation and regulation, were still being negotiated in Mexico's upper house until Thursday, when PAN lawmakers abandoned the process.

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